Face panel anchoring apparatus

ABSTRACT

A face panel anchoring apparatus includes a chassis, two coupling elements and a face panel. The chassis has a base plate and two side plates, to form a loading area, and an opening on one side. The two coupling elements are located on two sides of the opening and have respectively a sliding groove parallel with the base plate. The face panel has two guiding struts corresponding to the two sliding grooves to be slid and pivotally coupled thereon. Hence the face panel may be moved horizontally or swiveled relative to the base seat, to open or close the opening of the chassis.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an apparatus to anchor a face panel toa computer chassis, and particularly to a face panel anchoring apparatusthat is simply structured and easy to mount a face panel to a chassis orto remove the face panel from the chassis.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A conventional computer chassis is usually coupled with a removable facepanel on the front side. When data storage device requires maintenance,the face panel may be removed to unload the data storage device such asa floppy disk drive, hard disk drive and tape drive from the front sideof the chassis without removing the chassis from the server cabinet.

To further simplify the removing operation of the face panel, thegeneral practice is to adopt latches on the front side of the computerchassis. FIG. 1 illustrates a face panel 1 mounted to a chassis 2 withlatches. The face panel 1 has a plurality of first latch elements 3 ontwo sides, mating second latch elements 4 located on two sides of achassis 2, to allow the face panel 1 to be mounted on the front side ofthe chassis 2. While such a design makes a removing operation simpler,the face panel 1 has to be totally separated from the chassis 2 whilethe electronic components within the chassis are removed and replaced.The face panel being removed and disposed separately is easily damagedor even lost. Moreover, coupling of the latches is not reliable and theface panel tends to drop when subject to impact of external forces, sothat the protection effect diminishes.

To remedy the aforesaid problems, improved mounting assembly has beenproposed. Reference can be found in R.O.C. patent Nos. M246949 andM248201. Both of them aim to improve the latch structure to provide astronger coupling to enable the face panel to be mounted to the computerchassis more firmly. However, they still have to remove the face panelcompletely to do maintenance of the electronic component located in thechassis. To overcome this disadvantage, U.S. patent publication No.20040228083 discloses a sliding mechanism and a sliding element locatedrespectively on the chassis and the face panel, so that the face panelmay be turned relative to the chassis after having slid. The front sideof the chassis may be opened. But the structure of U.S. patentpublication No. 20040228083 includes complicated elements, and manyelements have to be set up on the chassis. Assembly and installation aredifficult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the aforesaid problems, the primary object of the presentinvention is to provide a face panel anchoring apparatus that has asimplified structure and makes repairs and maintenance of the host moreconvenient The face panel may be swiveled relatively to the computerchassis to open or close the front side of the host case. Hence there isno need to completely remove the face panel from the computer chassis.During maintenance of the computer, the possibility of loss or damage tothe face panel decreases significantly.

In order to achieve the foregoing object, the face panel anchoringapparatus according to the invention includes a chassis which has a baseplate and two side plates vertically located on opposite sides of thebase plate. The chassis has an opening on one side. Various electroniccomponents are set within the chassis, and the chassis is loaded into acabinet to form the server computer. There are two coupling elementsfacing each other fastened to the side plates respectively close to theopening. The facing side of each coupling element has a sliding grooveparallel with the base plate. A face panel is provided, which is capshaped and is formed at a dimension mating the opening. The face panelhas two side surfaces corresponding to the two side plates. Each sidesurface has a sliding element extended outwards from the edge of theside surface. A guiding pillar is provided on each of the slidingelement, which is extended outwards to be such that coupled with thesliding groove of the coupling element in a sliding and pivotal manner,so that the face panel is pivotably mounted to the chassis. The facepanel may be slid horizontally or swiveled relative to the chassis.Therefore, the face panel may be selectively moved to cover the openingof the chassis, or be swiveled and moved away from the chassis to openthe opening.

The face panel of the invention is coupled with the chassis in a slidingand pivotal manner. Hence by moving the face panel horizontally andswiveling the face panel, the opening of the chassis may be exposed tofacilitate repairs and maintenance operations without completelyremoving the face panel from the chassis. The repairs and maintenance ofthe invention are more convenient.

The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages ofthe invention will be more readily apparent from the following detaileddescription, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a conventional face panel anchoringapparatus.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the invention.

FIGS. 3 through 6 are fragmentary enlarged views of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view of the invention showing therelationship between the sliding element, guiding strut, sliding grooveand through holes.

FIGS. 8 through 10 are perspective views of an embodiment of theinvention in various use conditions.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIGS. 2 through 7, the face panel anchoring apparatusaccording to the invention includes a chassis 10, a pair of couplingelements 20 and a face panel 30.

The chassis 10 is to contain various electronic components of a servercomputer, such as a motherboard, interface cards and data storagedevices (not shown in the drawings). The chassis 10 is loaded into acabinet (not shown in the drawings) to form the server computer.

The chassis 10 has a base plate 11 and two side plates 12 that arevertically located on two opposite sides of the base plate 11 to form acontaining area (not labeled). The chassis 10 has an opening 13 on thefront side that may be divided by a plurality of partitions to formhousing troughs to hold the data storage devices such as hard diskdrives through the opening 13. The internal structure of the chassis 10is known in the art, thus details are omitted hereinafter.

The pair of coupling elements 20 have a plate shaped fastening section21 and a coupling section 22 respectively, and coupling section 22 islocated on one side of the fastening section 21. The fastening section21 has a plurality of flanges 211 on one side connecting to the couplingsection 22 to increase the strength of the coupling elements 20.

The fastening section 21 has a plurality of apertures 212 to receivescrews 213, to fasten the coupling element 20 to one side of the twoside walls 12 outside the containing area, such that the two couplingsections 22 are located on two sides of the opening 13 and extendedslightly from the front side of the chassis 10.

One side of the coupling section 22 facing the opening 13 has at leastone horizontal sliding groove 221 in parallel with the base plate 11.The sliding groove 221 has a closed end 221 a remote from one end of thechassis 10, and an open end 221 b running through the coupling section22. The coupling section 22 further has through holes 214 runningthrough two sides thereof and in parallel with the sliding groove 221and having one side communicating to the sliding groove 221. Thecoupling section 22 also has a longitudinal latch trough 222 on the edgeof the opening 13, intercepting the sliding groove 221 in a verticalmanner.

The face panel 30 is a cap formed at a dimension mating the opening 13of the chassis 10. The face panel 30 has two side surfaces correspondingto the two side plates 12. Each side surface has a sliding element 31extended outwards from one edge. The sliding element 31 has a guidingpillar 311 on the front end extending outwards, and two parallel slots32 on two side surface where the sliding element 31 is located. The twoslots 32 have an opening end to form a suspending elastic reed 33 oneach side. The elastic reed 33 has a jutting latch hook 331 on a distalend mating and engages with the latch trough 222 to achieve an anchoringeffect.

The face panel 30 is made by a plastic injection process or metal bystamping, so that the two sliding elements 31 are flexible and may bebent and deformed slightly. Hence the guiding pillars 311 at the frontend of the sliding element 31 may be coupled with the sliding grooves221 of the coupling section 22 by bending the sliding element 31 inwardsand to slide or swivel, to enable the face panel 30 to be moved andswiveled relative to the chassis 10.

The through hole 214 has a cross section, mating the cross section ofthe sliding element 31 so that the sliding element 31 may be inserted inthe coupling section 22 from one side and extended through another side.Through the open end 221 b of the sliding groove 221 and the throughhole 214, the sliding element 31 and the guiding strut 311 can runthrough the coupling section 22, to increase the moving displacement ofthe face panel 30 towards the chassis 10, to enable the face panel 30 toreach the opening 13 of the chassis 10.

Refer to FIGS. 8 through 10 for a condition in which the face panel 30is moved in contact with the opening of the chassis 10. The two slidingelements 31 and guiding struts 31 run through the coupling sections 20through the opening end 221 b and the through holes 214 and are extendedto another side of the coupling sections 20. The latch hooks 331 of theface panel 30 latch on the latch troughs 222, to anchor the face panel30 on the front side of the chassis 10 and cover the opening 13. In thiscondition, the two sliding elements 31 are held in the through holes 214to be confined, so that the two sliding elements 31 can be moved onlyhorizontally along the axial direction of the sliding groove 221 andthrough holes 214 and cannot be swiveled. Namely, the face panel 30 canonly be moved away horizontally from the chassis 10 without turningrelative to the chassis 10. Hence the face panel 30 will not be swiveledto expose the opening 13 of the chassis 10 when subject to impact.

Refer to FIGS. 9 and 10 for another condition in which the face panel 30is lifted from the opening 13 of the chassis 10, to enable the elementsin the server host to be removed and replaced as desired. Pull the facepanel 30 so that the two latch hooks 331 escape from the two latchtroughs 222, and move the face panel 30 away from the chassis 10. Thetwo guiding struts 311 slide in the two sliding grooves 221 so that theface panel 30 is moved horizontally until the guiding struts 311 hit theclosed ends 221 a. The sliding element 31 is totally released from thethrough hole 214, and the face panel 30 may be swiveled downwards aboutthe guiding struts 311 to expose the opening 13 of the chassis 10. Afterthe elements in the server host have been removed and replaced, the facepanel 30 is swiveled in reverse and moved forwards horizontally, untilreaching the opening 13 again. The two latch hooks 331 may be latched onthe latch troughs 222, and the face panel 30 may be mounted on thechassis 10 to cover the opening 13.

1. A face panel anchoring apparatus, comprising: a chassis comprising abase plate and two side plates which are vertically located on two sidesof the base plate, to form a containing area and an opening on one side;two coupling elements which are located on two sides of the opening andhave respectively a sliding groove parallel with the base plate; and aface panel which is cap-shaped and is formed at a dimension mating theopening of the chassis and has two side surface corresponding to the twoside plates, and a sliding element extended outwards from one edge ofeach side face, the sliding element having a guiding pillar extendingoutwards to slide in and pivotally couple with the sliding groove of thecoupling elements, such that the face panel is movable horizontally andswivelable relative to the two coupling elements.
 2. The face panelanchoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein the coupling elements haverespectively a plate-shaped fastening section and a coupling sectionwhich is located on one side of the fastening section, the fasteningsection being located on one side of the two side plate outside thecontaining area, the sliding groove being located in the couplingsection.
 3. The face panel anchoring apparatus of claim 2, wherein thefastening section has at least one flange on one side connecting to thecoupling section.
 4. The face panel anchoring apparatus of claim 2,wherein the fastening section is fastened to each of the two side platesthrough screws.
 5. The face panel anchoring apparatus of claim 2,wherein the sliding groove has a closed end remote from the chassis andan open end running through the coupling section.
 6. The face panelanchoring apparatus of claim 5, wherein the coupling section has throughholes running through two sides thereof, each of the through holes beingparallel with the sliding groove and having one side communicating withthe sliding groove to allow the sliding element to pass through from oneside of the coupling section and extend from other side thereof.
 7. Theface panel anchoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein the two couplingsections have respectively a longitudinal latch trough on the edge ofthe opening vertical to and intersecting the sliding groove, two sidesurface of the face panel that correspond to the coupling elementshaving a jutting latch hook to be latched in the latch trough.
 8. Theface panel anchoring apparatus of claim 7, wherein two side surfaces ofthe face panel that correspond to the two coupling elements has twoparallel slots, the two slots having an open end and forming asuspending elastic reed therebetween, the latch hook being located on adistal end of the elastic reed.